Industry grapples with mad-cow issue

October 17, 2001|By Douglas Hanks III, The Washington Post.

In a Wall Street Journal poll, 50 percent of the people said they eat less beef than 10 years ago. The NPD Group, a Port Washington, N.Y., firm that tracks American eating habits, found beef was an entree in almost 10 percent of meals cooked at home in 2000, compared with 17 percent in 1985.

But NPD also found a slight rise from the year before. And the Journal poll showed that although 98 percent of the respondents knew about mad-cow disease, 77 percent said the disease was not affecting their consumption of beef.

"God is good," said Dennis Bolster, the 67-year-old chairman of Washington, D.C.'s, Catholic Information Center, after a sirloin-steak sandwich at Bobby Van's Steakhouse next door. "He created the beef. If he wants to get me through the beef, that's his business. But I'm not going to worry about it."

Beef's image shapers know confidence like that is still vulnerable.

They say U.S. import and agriculture protections are so thorough that there is little need to worry about a mad-cow outbreak here. Still, a mad-cow crisis Web site sits dark on a National Cattlemen's Beef Association hard drive just in case.

Gardenburger, a vegetarian-patty maker eager for converts, recently commissioned a survey that showed 20 percent of Americans were eating less red meat because of mad-cow concerns. And foot-and-mouth disease, while not posing a health risk for humans, remains a headache for U.S. beef.

"You've got mad-cow out there. Now you hear about foot-and-mouth. You differentiate in some ways, but the product suffers in another," said Jere Sullivan, a former beef industry consultant with Edelman Public Relations. "If you see the word `beef' and bad news enough, it's bound to have an impact."